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robinturnerSome coincidences almost make me believe in synchronicity. Here I am watching the episode of Heroes where a football player tries to rape Claire, not knowing that she is a superhero with powers of self-regeneration. In other words, she's indestructible, so she gets her own back by asking if she can drive his car, then crashing it (and thus him) at high speed into a wall. I love this girl. Then I go back to the web and (via ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ginmar) come across the De Anza rape case, where a group of young men have been acquitted of raping a girl at a party. Some of the men in question were members of the De Anza college baseball team, hence the name of the case.
I am not a lawyer, and for all I know there really wasn't enough evidence to make the charge stick. One witness said she saw: "about ten pairs of legs surrounding a girl, lying on the mattress on the floor and a guy on top of her with his pants down and his hips thrusting on top of her ... This poor girl was not moving. She had vomit dribbling down her face. We had to scoop vomit out of her mouth [and] lift her up." OK, sometimes seventeen-year-old girls really do get drunk, have consensual sex with ten men and lose consciousness in that order. It is at least a physical possibility, and I have read that members of the Roman imperial family occasionally went in for that kind of thing. It is also possible that the gentlemen concerned be sufficiently concerned for the lady's privacy that they would try to stop anyone else entering the room - the witnesses had to break the door down. And it may even be the case that, as one of the gentlemen said, "This is her fault. She got drunk and she did this to herself" (my emphasis). I am not exactly sure how someone, especially someone who is incapable of standing up, can force ten men to have sex with them, but as I said, I am not a lawyer.
Two points strike me about this case. The first is that the vast majority of men have an abhorrence of rape. This abhorrence is, in fact, so great that when they commit rape, they are able to convince themselves (and often the court) that what they did was not rape, so "she did this to herself." (Mark Johnson has an interesting linguistic analysis of this phenomenon in The Body in the Mind.) Some time back, while discussing the origins of the werewolf myth in class, I commented that when people do things they know are bad, they tend to fall back on the three standard excuses we all used when we were children: It wasn't me; Someone made me do it; Nothing happened anyway. I don't think it's necessary to spell out exactly how these apply here.
The second point was the sports angle. I've lost track of the number of rape cases I've heard about in America where the perpetrator is some kind of sports hero, if only a local hero. Of course it could be that sportsmen are no more likely to commit rape than anyone else; it's just that the sports angle makes it newsworthy. But I can't help finding it interesting. Sports are, after all, supposed to build character. From time to time, the media panic about the effects of shoot-em-up computer games, Dungeons & Dragons or other nerdy pursuits, which are held responsible for suicides, college shootings and demonic possession. In contrast, I haven't noticed any panic about football, baseball or basketball. These things are meant to be good for you, and by and large, they probably are. Indeed, they are so good for you, that young men who play them couldn't possibly commit rape. The hyper-masculinity of American sports, with its cult of physical prowess, anti-intellectualism, male bonding and emphasis on winning at all costs ... no, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with gang rape.
ginmar) come across the De Anza rape case, where a group of young men have been acquitted of raping a girl at a party. Some of the men in question were members of the De Anza college baseball team, hence the name of the case.I am not a lawyer, and for all I know there really wasn't enough evidence to make the charge stick. One witness said she saw: "about ten pairs of legs surrounding a girl, lying on the mattress on the floor and a guy on top of her with his pants down and his hips thrusting on top of her ... This poor girl was not moving. She had vomit dribbling down her face. We had to scoop vomit out of her mouth [and] lift her up." OK, sometimes seventeen-year-old girls really do get drunk, have consensual sex with ten men and lose consciousness in that order. It is at least a physical possibility, and I have read that members of the Roman imperial family occasionally went in for that kind of thing. It is also possible that the gentlemen concerned be sufficiently concerned for the lady's privacy that they would try to stop anyone else entering the room - the witnesses had to break the door down. And it may even be the case that, as one of the gentlemen said, "This is her fault. She got drunk and she did this to herself" (my emphasis). I am not exactly sure how someone, especially someone who is incapable of standing up, can force ten men to have sex with them, but as I said, I am not a lawyer.
Two points strike me about this case. The first is that the vast majority of men have an abhorrence of rape. This abhorrence is, in fact, so great that when they commit rape, they are able to convince themselves (and often the court) that what they did was not rape, so "she did this to herself." (Mark Johnson has an interesting linguistic analysis of this phenomenon in The Body in the Mind.) Some time back, while discussing the origins of the werewolf myth in class, I commented that when people do things they know are bad, they tend to fall back on the three standard excuses we all used when we were children: It wasn't me; Someone made me do it; Nothing happened anyway. I don't think it's necessary to spell out exactly how these apply here.
The second point was the sports angle. I've lost track of the number of rape cases I've heard about in America where the perpetrator is some kind of sports hero, if only a local hero. Of course it could be that sportsmen are no more likely to commit rape than anyone else; it's just that the sports angle makes it newsworthy. But I can't help finding it interesting. Sports are, after all, supposed to build character. From time to time, the media panic about the effects of shoot-em-up computer games, Dungeons & Dragons or other nerdy pursuits, which are held responsible for suicides, college shootings and demonic possession. In contrast, I haven't noticed any panic about football, baseball or basketball. These things are meant to be good for you, and by and large, they probably are. Indeed, they are so good for you, that young men who play them couldn't possibly commit rape. The hyper-masculinity of American sports, with its cult of physical prowess, anti-intellectualism, male bonding and emphasis on winning at all costs ... no, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with gang rape.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 03:00 pm (UTC)I guess it may not be sports as such, but perhaps there's certain form of group bonding rituals which include alcohol and the assumption that all women are sexually available to them.
no subject
Date: 2007-05-28 09:30 pm (UTC)Yes. As I commented on
no subject
Date: 2007-05-29 03:38 am (UTC)being surrounded by ten men
all with one thing on their mind
can be intimidating enough of a threat
for the rape